and tHeir successours but also al kinde of primacie For â—he clergy must be altogether vnlike to â—he temporal gouernours To answere this obiection The ansvvere in very deede I doubt not but the end of that dominion which is practised among the gentils ought to be such that it should haue a special eye to thepreseruation of â—he common weale Gene. 10. NeÌ„roth But because at the first beginning Kings and Princes of â—he earth had not that end either only or specially before their eys but desired that dominion and practised it also because it was a pleasaunt and lordlike pleasure to be a prince and because the most part of Princes are prone to the worst therefore our sauiour Christ considering that which was first and which happeneth most oftentimes forbiddeth his Apostles and bisshops such a dominion and superiority as is vsed among the Princes of the earth and not altogeather such as ought to be among them Therefore it is not lawful for vs to desire any primacie for the primacies sake but for the traiuaile labour and end for which the primacie is ordeyned of Christ 1. Tim. 3. For he that desireth the office of a bishop desireth a good worck and not a vaine honour Againe albeit it be true that some wordly princes take the dominion and soueraintie vpon them for the profite of the common weale yet it is more that Christ requireth of his Apostles and Bisshops who are bound noâ— onely to see vnto the common weale but to the Christian common weale of which end no wordly princes could thincke when Christ spake those words because no Princes of the earth had receaued the faith of Christ at that time Wherefore that commaundement was specially geuen to the Apostles that they should direct their primacie and superioritie to the publick commoditie of faithfull men and to the saluation of their sowles to edifie withal 2. Cor. â— and not to destroye Farthermore albeit the King be faithfull and also vertuouse for his own person yet it is not the kinglie but the priestlie power which God chose from the beginning to rule his people withall Rom. 13. For although by his almightie goodnes he ordeined the Royal power and made the state of Kings to serue both his eternal purpose and also the coÌ„mon weale 1. Pet. 2. and willed euen the faithfull to obey them as being sent of God yet we reade not that the making of Kings ouer Gods owne people at the first came of God by the way of his mercifull grace and election but by the way of his angrie permission and iust iudgement Gen. 10. Hieron in quaest Hebrai in suffering thereby the paines of their great synnes to fall vpon them So NeÌ„rod that strong hunter the first King that we reade of either vsurped his kingdom by force or was auaunced to it by euil men without the graciouse appointement of God And when the people of Israël reiecting the gouernment of Samuel the priest 1. Reg. 8. wold nedes haue a King ouer them God accompted himself to be reiected of them doutlesse not because it was a synneful thing to haue a King but because it was a great dishonour to God who had appointed priests to gouern to haue his gouernment changed And it was lesse profit for their sowles to be ruled by a King then by a priest â— Reg. 8. For albeit a priest may be also naught as the sonnes of Samuel were yet he can neuer be so hurtful and slaunderouse to eternal saluation as the King may be partly because the state and as the world hath euer misiudged it the right and law of a King is to be secular and wordly In 1. Reg. lib. 4. c. 2. in so much that S. Gregorie said ea quae in iure regio continentur â—itanda potius quà m imitaÌ„da praedicuntur the things which are conâ—eined in the law that concerneth the Kings are foretold rather that they â—ay be auoided then folowed whereas â—he law and state of a priest is to be spirituall and godly and therefore it is â—lwaies a more perfit state and profession partly also because the making â—f a King had his beginning from the fact and consent of men working only according to the law of nations allowed in dede by God whereas the instiâ—uting of priestes came directly from God him self And who douteth but that it may be soner abused which men by good reason ordeined then that which God aboue al course of reason instituted by grace only In so much that the Iewes being prouided for by God himfelf of a spiritual gouernment did synne greuously and were forsaken of God concerning their act of choosing afterward a temporal King who shuld be aboue their high priest wherevpon Saint Gregorie saith In 1. Reg. lib. 4. c. 1. Meritò se abiectum Dominus conqueritur meritò regiam dignitatem concedit indignatus Tanta quidem erat iniquitas postulaÌ„tium vt cum illud peterent per quod à Deo recederent ex Dei iudicio permitti posset prohiberi non posset Our Lord did worthely lament himself to be abiected He being offended did iustly graunt the Royall dignitie â–ª so great was the iniquitie of the desirers that when they desired that whereby they should goe from God by the iudgement of God it might be permitted but prohibited it could not be But on the other side the first institution of Priests came not to Gods people by their own inuention but directly from God himself Genes 4. â— 22 to whome Abel Noë Abraham Aaron and his successours serued in that office by â—â—e gratiouse election of God vntill â—hrist fulfilling the figure of Melchiâ—â—dech instituted in his last supper â—â—e order of priesthood Lucae 22. according to â—he state of the new testament geâ—ing power to his Apostles to make â—nd by that meane to offer mystically â—is own body and blood witnessing â—hereby how much more he gaue them â—ll manner of necessarie or profitable â—ower ouer the Church his mystical â—odie For yf his priests be so great that â—hey haue taken power to make his â—wne body with their holy mowth as Saint Hierom speaketh shall â—ow any man disdaine Ad Euagrium to be vnder â—hat order which God hath so excelâ—ently honoured This much may be said for the whole order of priesthood But after that the Apostles were made Priests he ordeyned Saint Peter the general pastour anâ— high bishop of his whole flock and he did it with such protestation of loâ—â— and charitie that it must needes be coÌ„fessed euen by the despisers of Christe institutioÌ„ that there was neuer lightly any act don in this world by the sâ—â— of God with shewing of greater loâ—â— toward mankind then at what tyme hâ— himfelf in his own person appointed vâ— a pastour and shepheard Now this pastour being thus greater then the rest is not only primate iâ— a far other sort then the Kings of the vnfaithfull
can by his Kingly power iudge in the greater nor the priest who is the Kings superiour in the lesser can possibly but much more be his superiour in the greater The remouing of the obiection Or haue we diuerse Kinds of Ecclesiastical and of spiritual causes Be there neuer so manie the Act of parliament geueth the highest and the supreme gouernment of them all In al causes vnto the King And yet the King lacketh not onelie practise experience or cunning but also he lacketh spirituall and Ecclesiasticall power to heare confessions to absolue men from their synnes to inioyne penance to consecrate the Sacrament of the altar to Ordre bishops and priestes by the Imposition of hādes or to excommunicate open synners Here Master Iewel wolde say that he neuer meant the prince should be supreme gouernour either in administring or in frequenting or in directing others to frequent the holy mysteries or in any like sacramental functions Why then doth he and his fellowes sweare men The othe of the supremacy generally to acknowledge the secular Christian prince Supreme gouernour in all things and causes Why doth he not rather declame and speake with all his force against that most impiouse and blasphemouse othe Yea so impiouse that those Protestants who most earnestly pressed the setting foorth therof dare not now iustifie the foorm of it Shall men in a Christian realme be sworen vpon the holy Euangelistes to keepe beleue or acknowledge that which noman at all no not they who procured it dare mainteine See good Countrie men see the discretiō of your parlaments in matters of Religion A men aliue abhorre from that act which the Laity made and enacted as a form so warely drawen wherevnto men might commit their euerlasting saluation or damnation Mark I say that M. Nowel M. Horn M. Iewel dare not warrant the King to be suprem gouernour in al Ecclesiastical causes But rather they confesse that a Bisshop or Priest may and ought to gouerne the King concerning his comming to the Mysteries and in such like matters This much being said cōcerning Philippus the first Christian Emperour who obeyed but gouerned not the Bisshop in Ecclesiastical matters let vs now goe forward An. Dom. 324. Constantinus the Great perceiuing the Bisshops which came to the Synod at Nice to haue many quarels and sutes among them selues appoynted a day wherein euery man should offer his complaint in writing and when he had takē al their libels without disclosing the contents of them Ruffinus lib. 10. Eccles histor cap. 2. he said vnto the bishops Deus vos constituit Sacerdotes potestatē vobis dedit de nobis quoque iudicandi ideo nos a vobis rectè iudicamur vos autē nō potestis ab hominibus iudicari propter quod Dei solius inter vos expectate iudicium God hath made you priests or Sacrificers and hath geuen you power to iudge of vs also And therefore we are rightly iudged of you But yee can not be iudged of men For which cause expect yee or tary for the iudgemēt of God alone among you This discourse of Constantine conteineth three thinges worthie to be noted First he saith the bishoppes are Sacerdotes Priestes or men that haue publik authority to make externall sacrifice vnto God for the whole Heb. 5. peples synnes Secondly he saieth that they haue power to iudge euen of the Emperour himself And this their power of iudging dependeth of their power of priesthod For the highest power may iudge the lower But no power can be higher then the power of a priest because he is the minister of God in that office which most directly toucheth Gods honour and seruice Malac. 1. Wherupon S. Augustin hauing said what was Moyses if he were not a priest In Psal 98 geueth this reason of his words Nūquid maior Sacerdote esse poterat Whether could he be greater then a priest as who should say seing Moyses was the greatest officer amōg the Israelits and yet he could not be greater then a priest it must nedes be that he was a priest The priestes then of God being the greatest officers in earth haue power to iudge euen of an Emperour if any be in their parishes or Dioceses Thirdly of these former points Cōstātine deduceth an other conclusion that priestes can not be iudged of mē How then can they be iudged of the Emperour Neither doth it skill that Constantine seemeth to haue iudged certaine priests or Ecclesiastical causes when the Donatists appealed vnto hī for he did it as S. Augustine saieth à sanctis antistitibus postea veniam petiturus In epistol 162. as one that would afterward aske leaue or pardon of the holy bisshops Who asketh leaue or pardon for that which he may doe by his owne power He did it then through the importunat sute of heretickes for the peace of the Church otherwise detesting them that demaunded his iudgement after that the bishoppes had iudged Optat. li 2 August in epist 162. and finding great fault therewith himself as Optatus and S. Augustine also doe witnesse But take away importunity of heretikes and the commission leaue or pardon of the right bishoppes who may for diuerse respectes either committe certain Ecclesiasticall causes to lay mē or winck for a tyme at such iudgemēts take away I say heresie and permission and ordinarily it is against the law of God that any secular Prince who needeth the office of a priest for his reconciliation vnto God should sitte iudge vpon him in causes of the Churche 2. Cor. 5. at whose handes he must receaue the Sacramentes of the Churche and by whose ministery his soule must be purged Now if one priest doe iudge an other that is Gods iudgement Deut. 17. Num. 3 and not the iudgement of men For God hath sette one priest ouer an other as the high priestes was aboue the Leuites in Moyses lawe and as the Apostles wereof a higher degree then the seuenty Disciples or then the seuen Deacons These woordes then of Constantine vos non potestis ab hominibus iudicari Ruffin li. 1. cap. 2. yee ô priestes of God can not be iudged of men are thus meant the order of priesthood is such as is not subiect to anie secular or earthly iurisdiction And seing all the power of iudgement which euen Christian Emperours or Kinges haue by their own state is earthly and secular it wil follow that no King or Emperour can by his owne power iudge a priest in priestlie causes and in Ecclesiasticall matters That all the power of Emperours though they be Christians is secular Constantine himself pronounceth saying to the Donatists as Optatus recordeth Petitis á me in seculo iudicium De schism Donatist lib. 1. cùm ego ipse Christi iudiciū expectem Yee aske of me iudgement in the world whereas I my self looke for Christes iudgement There are then two iudgements one in the world an other
of Christ That is worldly or secular Secular iudgemēt this is heauenly or spiritual Constantine had none other iudgement but secular because his sentence could binde no farther then in this life But Christes iudgement which he excerciseth as wel presently by his Priestes and Ministers Ioan. 20. as at the later day in his own person is spirituall Spirital iudgemēt Matth. 16. In Coelis and rather apperteineth to heauen and to the life to come then to this world Againe that Constantines iudgement was earthlye S. Augustine in diuers places declareth saing of the very same Donatists In ep 162. Terrenum Regem suae causae iudicem esse voluerunt They would an earthly King to be the iudge of their cause He meaneth there Constantine the Christian Emperour by the name of an earthly King Hitherto I haue shewed that Constantine beleued and professed that Bishops or Priestes are not ordinarilie and where aequitie or conscience maie take place to be iudged by secular Princes Now it onely remaineth to consider specially the great honour which he gaue to the See of S. Peter and to his Successour the Bisshop of Rome First I take it for moste certaine that Constantinus the Great Constātin baptized at Rome was instructed and baptized of Syluester the Pope of Rome as not onely most auncient witnesses but euē the very stones ād pillers of marble doe witnesse which being erected in the Emperors owne house named Constantiniana beare the name of his baptisterie to witte of the verie place wherein Constantinus was baptised 1 in vita Syluestri in Pontificali 2 De sex aetatibus 3 in Chrō 4 lib. 2. Histor Whiche thing also Pope Damasus who liued not long after and consequēt lie 2. S. Bede 3. Ado and Marianus Scotus affirme the same Yea 4 Gregorius Turonensis who liued long before alludeth to the same storie in describing the baptism of King Chlodoueus Neither only the Latines haue thus auouched the truth 5 In vita Cōstant 6. Lib. 7. c. 35. 7 In Anna libus but the Greciās also as 5 Zonaras 6 Nicephorus 7 Cedrenus not esteming what Eusebius and some other moued by him reporte in that behalfe as whom for his affection to the Arrian heresie they had suspected Constantine then being baptized at Rome and thereby instructed that S. Peter had died there to whome he built a faire Church in the hil named Vaticane and that he had left a successour in that See Damasus in Pontif. who beside his Bisshoprike of Rome should haue the chiefe pastoral cure ouer al the faithfull gaue such reuerence to the saied Chaire and See of S. Peter that he thought it not conuenient for him to keep his ordinarie courte and Residence anie more in that Citie where the chiefe causes of all Christendome should be daily examined In so muche that he did not onely protest his faith in Christ and the honour due to S. Peter in expresse words which are before the first Nicene Coūcel some of whiche wordes are likewise alleged at the second general Coūcel kept at Nice but also he in deede went out of the Citie of Rome with this intent in Praefat. Concilij Niceni to keep no more his Imperiall residence in the same Which thīg is farther proued in that he gaue away his owne Palaice dedicating it a Temple vnto our Sauiour which temple standeth till this daie wherein also the Pope had aftetward a dwelling place And who doth not perceiue that he departeth with the mind to returne no more who at his going geueth his own house away Adde herevnto In vitae Constantini that Constantine went to seeke a newe dwelling place as Zonaras reporteth and at the last reasted in Bizance calling it of his owne name Constantinople or new Rome Why should Constantine thus aduisedly deparete from the head Citie of al the world the glorie of his Empire and the chiefe roialtie of his inheritance except he had bene fullie perswaded that S. Peter and his successours the Bisshops of Rome had bene placed at Rome by the wil of God Serm 1. de Natiuit Pet. Pauli thēce to publish the faith of Christ into al Countries as Pope Leo saieth wherevnto he would that his Imperial court should be no hinderance For otherwise if he had yelded to a simple Bisshop there was a Bisshop in Constātinople also as in euery other great Citie But it was not euery Bisshoppe to whome Constantine yealded but the chiefe Bissbop of all and the heade of the whole Militāt Church Which Exāple of his al good Emperours following neuer kept afterward their courte and ordinarie residence in Rome Zonaras in vita Constantis Nepotis Heraclij al be it Constance perceiuing more honour to be geuen to the Mother which was Rome then to the daughter whiche was Constantinople woulde haue returned to Rome but as Zonaras declareth without successe Which thing who so thinketh to haue chanced with out the singular prouidence of God may seme to think that the world is gouerned by chance To this fact of the Emperors in their absteining to keepe their residence in Rome let vs ioyn the expresse wordes also of diuers good successours of Constantine the Greate For if anie euil came betwene it is no marueil if thei did hate so good a thing as the Primacie of the Church was Concerning Constantius the heretike who was the sonne of great Constantine Athanasius complaineth An. D. 360 that he and his adherents the Arrians had no reuerence toward the Bisshop of Rome In Epist ad Solitar vitam agentes not consideringe vel quòd sedes illa apostolica esset vel quôd Roma Metropolis esset ditionis Romanae either that it was the Apostolike See or els that Rome was the Mother citie of the Roman circuit So that we may see euen from the beginning that as the most faithful Emperours did alwaies honour the Apostolike See of Rome euen so the heretikes and worste men did alwaies hate it and despise it For on the other side in the midst of the Arrian heresie the noble and vertuouse Emperors Gratianus Valentinianus and Theodosius doubted not to sette foorth a Lawe in these woordes An. D. 386 leg 1 Cod. de summa Trinitat Cunctos populos quos Clementiae nostrae regit imperium in tali volumus religione versari quam D. Petrum Apostolū tradidisse Romanis religio vsque ad huc ab ipso insinuata declarat quà mque Pontificē Damasū sequi claret Petrū Alexādriae Episcopū virum Apostolicae sanctitatis We wil al nations which are gouerned by our Clemēcy to liue in such a religiō as the religiō which is vsed from S. Peter til this day doth declare him to haue deliuered to the Romans ād which religiō it is euidēt that Pope Damasus ād Peter the Bishop of Alexandria a mā of an Apostolik holines doe follow By this Law it is witnessed first that S. Peter